1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image reading and recording apparatus and, more specifically, it relates to an image reading and recording apparatus which is compact and is easily maintained.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An image reading and recording apparatus such as shown in FIG. 1 is conventionally known.
The image reading and recording apparatus comprises an image reading station 110 and an image recording station 130 provided below the image reading station 110.
The image reading station 110 comprises an original holder 112 for holding an original 113 fixedly thereon, a movable optical system 115 for transmitting an image on the original to a light receiving device 118 while moving, a light receiving device 118 for reading the image and photoelectrically transforming the same to electric signals, an illuminating lamp 114 for illuminating the original and an electric control unit 151 for processing the electric signals transformed by the light receiving device.
The image recording station 130 comprises a laser unit 132 for emitting laser beams for recording the image on a photosensitive material, a film magazine 126 for storing the photosensitive material 127 for recording the image thereon and an electric control unit 152 for recording the image.
The image reading station 110 and the image recording station 130 are contained in respective independent housings 111 and 131.
The process for reproducing an original image is as follows. The original 113 held in the original holder 112 is illuminated by the illuminating lamp 114 while the optical system 115 is moved from one end to the other end of the original 113. As a result, the original image is read out and is converted to electric signals by the light receiving device 118. In response to the signals read by the light receiving device 118, the laser beam from the laser unit 132 is modulated. This modulated beam exposes the photosensitive material 127 taken from the film magazine 126.
The basic concept behind and the detailed description of the foregoing is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,080,634 entitled "Halftone Reproduction Device with High Resolution Scanning and Recording System" issued Mar. 21, 1978 to Schreiber. This patent is incorporated herein by reference.
The above described conventional apparatus has some problems described below. Since the image is read by a movable optical system, the image reading station housing 111 should include a space S in which the optical system moves and another space for housing the electric control unit 151 for image processing control. As a result, though there is an empty space, the image reading electric control unit 151 must be contained in a narrow space, so that it is difficult to perform maintenance of the image reading electric control unit 151.
The top surface of the housing 131 of the image recording station 130 forms a table on which the housing 111 for image reading station 110 is located. The housing 131 for the image recording station 130 needs to have a substantial height in order to allow one to carry out the image reading operation in a natural position. Therefore, the housing 131 for the image recording station 130 unavoidably has a large inner volume. Consequently, the housing 131 for image recording station contains a film magazine 126 and an image recording control unit 152 and so on but still it has an extra space, that is a dead space D as shown in FIG. 1. Therefore, relatively little space is occupied by the necessary components compared with the whole space occupied by the apparatus itself. In addition, since the necessary components are contained in a narrow space, the maintenance of the electric control units 151 and 152 and correcting troubles such as a jam happened during carrying the photosensitive material are not easily carried out. Furthermore, there is also a problem that the film exchange is difficult since the film magazine 126 is deposited on a low position.